Shaolin Warrior Training (video)

Wisdom Quarterly

The Shaolin monks of China are ancient warriors who defend the Dharma and preserve physical-spiritual traditions through rigorous meditative concentration (ch'an, zen) and bodily training.

Yantra Yoga: Tibetan Yoga of Movement: Movement (Istitutoshangshung)

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Inappropriate Yoga Guy (comedy)

Wisdom Quarterly revisits The Inappropriate Yoga Guy by Tato Salad

(GoPotatoTV) Ogden creates awkward situations in yoga studios throughout the (San Fernando) Valley. But don't worry, he's in the yoga teacher training program. Produced by James McFadden and Tyler McFadden. Directed by Greg Thanos. Starring Avi Rothman and Brittney Kara. Written by Avi Rothman. Special thanks to GardenOfYoga.com!

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YogaMan? Why Men CAN'T Do Yoga (video)

The Men of Wisdom Quarterly

Paradox: Try less, go further. Don't force it. Use the Force, he-man! (technabob.com)

 

Why not?

Fun with flexibility (photo-librarian.com)

Men can't do yoga, at least not American men. There are various reasons for this, two of which are most salient. It's too easy, and it's too hard.
  
Given a Hot Yoga class (or what the Choudhury Corporation tries to appropriate under the exclusive "Bikram" brand name), we rise to the challenge. Now there's something to sink our teeth into! We come to stare at yoga-butts, to see what all the fuss is about, and we end up with mild cases of heat exhaustion. And we wonder how all these women are able to keep going without collapsing.

  

Baggy yoga pants (aliexpress.com)

We muscle through it, laugh at the off-color commentary (characteristic of so many Bikram franchises), and treat ourselves to rajasic- and tamasic- poisons afterward. We have to do something to undo the cleansing reaction from all that sweating. But given the task of a slow-paced Hatha (Sun-Moon) Yoga class (characteristic of Iyengar), we wither. We're helpless. There's nothing to do!
  
Give us something to do, something to climb, something to conquer! We can't just stand here listening to some woo-woo gal blithering on and on about proper form. Well, we can't until patience builds, maybe some reserve, and when we finally stop staring/drooling at all the women standing around us in colorful tights and tutus from Lululemon, OMgirl, and Victoria's Secret.

Here's The Secret, Guys

There is an ancient Asian philosophy that goes by the Sanskrit name of sthirasukha. It roughly translates as "hard-easy," "hard-softness," "effort-ease," or "strive-rest." Maybe "force-flex" or "yin-yang" would be catchier. Whatever. Once you understand it, you can come up with your own translation.
  
The way of the Tao is the path of least resistance. "The Force" is the magical mystery of the universe, the movement of prana (not to be confused with prAna, which only makes for good fashion sense).
  

Nerds rejoice. Star Wars to the rescue!

To get where you're going you have to resist inertia a little then rest into it. For instance, one makes an effort to breathe then lets go. One makes an effort to stand then stands. One makes an effort to get into a pose then simply rests in it. It's not really rest -- because that would be collapsing -- but rather resting into it, steadying, undoing the tension, releasing excess energy or stress, letting go.
 
It's all about balanced-effort. We all do well to have open minds...but not so open that our brains fall out. Don't jump unless you have a parachute: Don't try the extreme pose if you haven't built up to it by slow and steady training. That is the quickest route to failure, disappointment, and stopping.

Notice anything? This yoga stuff is more than something practiced in a studio with fancy flooring and ambient music. It's a lesson in how to live: Go easy. Go strong. Relax. Build real or core strength. It derives from ease not force. Supple flexibility is stronger than brittle stiffness.
  

A woman's strength, a man's balance (uechi)

Softness only seems like weakness -- until we see what yoga women (yoginis) are capable of.  And look at the Indian yogis, who are preternaturally strong yet even more flexible than American women. Who cares if we can demolish everybody in the other platoon, hood, squad, barrio, team, or country? If we can't bend, our machismo is only poison to the world. Stretch the heart.

• Yoga for Guys: Top 3 Reasons "A Little Stretching" Is Everything We Need
• Dress Codes - What's a Guy to Wear for Yoga? NYTimes.com
• What's the deal with guys and yoga? Fit and Feminist
• Do straight guys do yoga? - Yahoo! Answers 
• Guys only! What's with you and girls who wear yoga pants?‎ 
• 5 Toughest Yoga Positions for Guys - Men's Fitness 
• Yoga for Regular Guys: Best Damn Workout on the Planet

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"YogaWoman" (film)

YogaWoman.TV; Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly

(YogawomanTV) Movie now showing in Los Angeles and other major markets

 

The wonders of inner peace (Yogag33k)

Yoga, as spiritual exercises and an ancient Vedic philosophy, was brought to the West from India by a lineage of male teachers (gurus) and their disciples (chelas). But now a generation of women are leading the way. They're strong, they're inspiring, and they're radically changing people's lives. "YogaWoman" is a groundbreaking film, uncovering a global phenomenon that has forever changed the face of yoga.

  
Comments

Shiva-Shakti, the masculine-feminine in everyon

(Notch76) I am a man, and I practice yoga, but my understanding is that a major aspect of the practice is the move toward dissolving the ego along with any attachment to one's identity (including gender) in favor of a realized oneness with all. That being said, I don't take issue with the fact many women find peace, comfort, and strength through yoga practice. I think it's beautiful when anyone makes such a discovery.
  
(Wendyness01 replying to MagicPonyRides) Unless you have "exposure" in the yoga community (the "casting couch" approach works), one's ability to make a living teaching yoga is VERY limiting. I know several yoga teachers who can't make a living teaching yoga so they "mate poach." Most yoga teachers that I know here in the West are female, NOT married, and DON'T have children. Not very empowering.
  
(ChannelStudioPeace) How fantastic! A film about yoga and women! Yoga's a wonderful way of entering sacred space, feeling your power, and experiencing the connection to yourself and the universe around you. It's interesting how the cycle has shifted from yoga being practiced and taught exclusively by men at one time to today it being practiced and taught almost exclusively by women. As a female practitioner and yoga teacher, I can't wait to see the movie!
  
(Wayne Barrow) As a male with only a cursory interest in yoga, I was blown away by this insightful film as it gave me a fascinating insight into this noble art from a female perspective. I wish the filmmakers and people involved in the production all the best for producing a quality and entertaining product. I wish people would actually see the documentary all the way through before passing judgment!

• YogaMan? Too bad men can't do yoga!

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Shambhala: Save on all Buddhist titles

Shambhala Publications; Wisdom Quarterly

Save 30% and get free shipping (by 3-31-13 when using the code BCAL12 at checkout, U.S. Media Mail only) on Shambhala's entire Buddhist catalogue now including Snow Lion. Want a sneak peek of the catalogue? Check it out online to find: new books and audio, special offers and discounts, excerpts and author interviews, articles and more!

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Yoga: "Looking for Ancient Tibet" (video)

YOGIFILM Productions (yogifilm.de); Tibet Archive; Wisdom Quarterly
German with English subtitles

A documentary team expands into isolated power places in eastern Tibet to find the last living holders of a thousand-year-old yoga tradition. This footage, which was recorded in the picturesque Himalayan mountains, brings the Western understanding of reality into question.

  

Monks for modern Tibet continue to protest in China and US (phayul.com)

 
Can American Men Do Yoga, Too?   

Yoga is secretly one of the most Mansome of all sports. And believe it when we say that ladies love the Downward Facing Dog. Host Johnathan Fernandez demonstrates a few poses to get men in touch with their chakras without leaving their living rooms. More

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The Yoga Raves (video)

YogaRave.org/US; Dev, Amber Dorrian, CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

Here's a musical event we can all agree on -- a yoga class, a rave, an enlightening experience? What is the Art of Living "Yoga Rave"?

Yoga Rave is a party like no other -- one coming to SF, LA, Chi Town, and Philly -- a new concept in fun where the body responds only to the stimulation of music, yoga, meditation. The LA version is tonight.

This initiative is the brainchild of the Art of Living Foundation, the largest volunteer-run NGO in the world. Just like the rest of the Foundation’s initiatives, the motive is a non-profit one. The money raised goes to bring yoga, meditation, and stress-reduction to university campuses and young professionals in need through the YESplus workshop. Learn more, and FIND A COURSE: us.yesplus.org.

 

Drink Reed's Kombucha, stretch, bend, meditate, and absorb the music all in the company of like-minded party people? Sounds like that's worth a visit to the Art of Living Center at 948. W. Adams Blvd, Los Angeles near USC. More

• "Mindful Music" at Dharma Punx, Hollywood
• Space Shuttle Endeavour cruises Los Angeles
• PHOTOS: Endeavour crawls through LA
• FREE 7th Annual Pasadena ArtWalk
• De-worming India program set to launch
• "The Business of Yoga" (podcast)
  

  Joni Yung interview with Michael Thomas Robinson
  
• Accidental Yogist Joni goes to Internet radio:

(yogachatshow.wordpress.com)

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Free Yoga at the Getty Museum

TheHookup.Flavorpill.com/ArtOfYoga2012

We're teaming up with Naked Juice to present the Art of Yoga at the gorgeous Getty Center on Saturday, September 22nd, and we'd love for you to join us.

 

RSVP for your spot at the event, which features yoga instructor Ashley Turner, music by KCRW’s Jason Bentley, free museum entry after the event, and Naked Pure Coconut Water.

   

The first 100 people at the event score a free yoga mat, but we promise that everyone will leave reinvigorated, replenished, and refreshed.

 

And if that’s not enough, everyone from the event is invited to the 10:00 am exhibition tour of “Gustav Klimt: The Magic of Line,” and a 2:30 pm talk by performance artist Skip Arnold. Doors open at 8:00 am, class starts at 8:30 am.

• J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center
  1200 Getty Center Drive
  Los Angeles, CA 90049-1687

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Self-view, non-duality, and Zen (video)

Alan Watts (alanwatts.org); KPFK.org (Audio Archives); Wisdom Quarterly

• PLAY NOW ("Intellectual Yoga," Aug. 5, 2012 8:00 am)

Yoga (to yoke) means union. There are different ways (to yoke, to union). It opposes alienation, the view of separateness of "self" from all (sakkaya-drishti). Experiencing the ONENESS of all things is not enlightenment. But it is blissful, a  relief, giving a sense of connection longed for (connectedness) at a profound and innate level. How? Allow it.

   

We may be finding it difficult to meditate. That's common and to be expected for untrained hearts. Stress not. Relax more deeply. Wish for it less. But keep applying the "method" -- bring mind back to the object of meditation. What does that mean? It only means remember to give attention to what the mind is being centered on -- the present moment, this breath, a mantra, a sensation, a visualization, a fragrance. If one is engaged in the fundamental practice of not concentrating on the breath but simply allowing attention to go back to the breath again and again until it sits there. There is no effort to make other than persisting, waiting for a natural elevated state to come as a result of everything falling away, letting go, restoring consciousness to pure awareness without a goal.

Full-length "The Art of Meditation" by British Zen teacher Alan Watts

 

MCTB The Non-Duality Model

DharmaOverground.org

The Non-Duality Model essentially says that the goal is to stop a process of identification that turns some patterns of sensations into a Doer, Perceiver, Center Point, Soul, Agent, or Self in some very fundamental perceptual way. By seeing these sensations as they are, the process can gradually be seen through until one day: “In the seeing [there is] just the seen, in the hearing just the heard, in the thinking [otherwise experienced] just the thought”...

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Another MC attacks Sikh temple in US

UPDATED 8/8; Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly (ANALYSIS)

Guru Nanak and nine other famous Sikh teachers. (Dev and ji are simply Indian honorifics).

   

OAK CREEK, Wisconsin - Well that didn't take long. Two weeks ago horrified Americans were shouting "Never again," and we were adding, "until the next time." Another Manchurian Candidate (MC) has been loosed upon civil society to create random mayhem and sow the seeds of fear.

• NEVER AGAIN (until the next time)
• 7 shot dead at Sikh temple
• Sikh temple massacre by white supremacist
• Holmes: "How does 'Dark Knight' end?"

Successful PsyOps candidate Page

Islamophobia figures into it, just as it did in Norway, because the first person shooter (whom police claim to have executed or "put down" when it seems, in fact, he followed his programming and committed suicide) was a white supremacist. He, Wade Michael Page, was also a military man with a checkered past that makes ordinary who would not be expected to have moved up the ranks if he were simply an enlisted man. And what did he do for the military-industrial complex (MIC)? PsyOps!

Now PsyOps (the propaganda arm of the MIC that runs black projects under the general heading of "psychological operations") must be getting pretty sloppy. Two weeks ago their MC was triggered to attack, that is, to methodically launch a finely tuned plan with no emotion, no thought, and very little if anything to remember.

  

Holmes medicated into silence

Once in custody the MC is chemically lobotomized to prevent any uncomfortable memories from creeping in and leaking to the public. It happened to wild-eyed Jared Loughner (who is "pleading guilty" while medicated out of his mind), the Gabby Gifford shooter, and James "the Joker" Holmes, the Aurora gunman.

Why do these things happen?

Why would anyone attack Sikhs (pronounced sEEks, not sICks), a small religion popular in India with many financially successful adherents, which seems to blend cultural elements of Hinduism and Sufism (mystic Islam). Kundalini Yoga as brought to America by the charismatic "Yogi Tea" magnate Yogi Bhajan is not "yoga" in the traditional Brahminical sense. Rather, it is a Sikh creation that has become very popular in the US thanks to female American converts like Gurmukh). Sikhism has, however, nothing to do with actual Islam. But appearances matter as much as assumptions: Turbans, uncut beards, white linen clothing -- it's all enough to earn them the pejorative "towel h*ads" and more disturbing militaristic ethnic slurs like Hajji, a term roughly equivalent to "gooks," employed by US soldiers committing war crimes during the US war on Vietnam. So was the hateful vocalist Page really out to avenge 9/11 or continue his military training as a civilian? Working in PsyOps it is more likely that he was hoisted by his own petard. He went from researcher to research subject without signing an informed consent release. The process of converting certain personality types, tested for by military psychiatrists, has been perfected since the idea of creating one or two man sleeper cells (along with their above top secret handlers) was born. The Russians apparently did it; the military-industrial complex does it. It is all part of "winning hearts and minds" (WHAM) by scaring up and inciting civilian support for US military atrocities. If draconian police state tactics are now suggested "for our security," who will oppose it? One must suppose that the NRA (National Rifle Association) will as well as both corporate wings of the Republican party (i.e., Obamas and Romneys). Gun control? Take guns out of the hands of scared citizens and put them in the hands of abusive police. This country does not grow richer every year manufacturing arms for the world by allowing greater regulations without a fight. In fact, any peace talk is actually thwarted rather than aided by US intervention, which coincidentally profits Democratic and Republican candidates' corporate supporters.

Gurmukh, owner of Golden Bridge Yoga in Hollywood, discusses friendship

  
Such events, then, pay off in many ways: the imposition of Orwellian regulations, loss of civil liberties, further encroachment of federal Big Brother style government into our lives, acceptance of endless war doctrine (fighting against tactics such as "terrorism" rather than finite countries), widespread panic, irrational fear-based behavior by citizenry (like increased gun sales to prevent more killings when guns can only attempt to do that by killing), xenophobia goes unremedied as "in" and "out" groups are further delineated, increased pharmaceutical sales (by citizens, shooters, police, military, and future candidates)... There is a great deal of money to be made because of fear, arms manufacturing being the most obvious. With that being the case, how can "peace" be tolerated?

• Man crushes cop cars after pot bust
• Doomsday Alert: the New Noah's Ark
• Global warming and FBI secrets 
• "The perfect storm is unfolding," economist warns
• [Bi] Obamas’ marriage produces WH drama, dysfunction
• Economist: “This is going to be a lot worse than 2008”

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Yogis move Off the Mat, Into the World

OffTheMatIntoTheWorld.org

OTM uses the power of yoga to inspire conscious and sustainable activism to ignite grassroots social change, moving yogis off the mat into the world. Join the movement!

  
Yogis around the world are coming together to activate big change. Join the growing movement of leaders raising funds and awareness for global causes. Join the Global Seva Challenge and come on a life-changing journey to India. GET INVOLVED

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"Yogis of Tibet" (film)

Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Jeffrey Pill (video); Ayya Khema (book)

The fabled land of Tibet, with Lhasa its capital and Potala Palace its heart (nekorpa.org)

  

(IAmHanuMan)For the first time, the reclusive and secretive Tibetan Buddhist monks (yogis and lamas) agree to discuss aspects of their philosophy and allow themselves to be filmed while performing their ancient practices. They do this to preserve an extraordinary culture being eradicated. Directed by Jeffrey M. Pill.

   

Himalayan Buddhist flags (Bhakti Omwoods)

Once upon a time in Tibet, when people followed the ancient Indian ascetic practices (of the Buddha and the Brahmins) prevalent on the subcontinent below, there were real-life mystics and magicians. Magic and Mystery in Tibet was an early western title by Alexandra David-Neel, embroidered and exaggerated to boost sales. But it hinted at the perplexity of what was possible in the Himalayan wilds, in the isolated home of seers (rishis), Bon wizards, partial shamans, and Buddhist wanderers. It is famously said, "Not all who wander are lost." While the austerities and mortifications once prevalent in Tibet may have reached extremes beyond the Buddha's "sane asceticism" (dhutanga), it produced and kept alive many of the feats that set Indian spirituality apart. This eventuality of taking secrets out into the world beyond the Himalayas did not come entirely as a surprise.
  

There was a prophecy that said, "When the Iron Bird Flies," the title of Western Theravada nun and meditation master Ayya Khema's book, "the Dharma [Buddhism] would reach the West." Like many Native American prophecies, we do not realize that they have come true until we look back on them. The "iron birds" were planes in the Age of Flight a time when we also re-entered the secret Space Age. The ages are cyclical. This is not the first time earthlings have flown in metal "birds." The long-lived devas remind us, and we can develop the capacity to look back to verify it. The bigger question is, What will we do with the liberating Dharma?

• David-Neel: On Tibetan Buddhist Hermits

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